I'm excited to see the new facial animations and lip sync coming up in a few days

[Villentretanmerth]

I'm excited to see the new facial animations and lip sync coming up in a few days

I remember hearing in interviews from the long long ago, that this area is going to be greatly improved upon. That was actually 1 of the few things that I thought The Witcher 2 was below average in, given the year that it came out in, which I remember thinking was a bit odd given the amount of importance that CDPR place on dialogue.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the leaked footage from a few months ago seemed to be using the exact same lip sync/facial animation system from TW2. I mean, it didn't look any different to me. But I assumed that was due to the game being pre-alpha at the time. So do you think that we can expect, since it's no longer pre-alpha, that the footage we see in a few days will be greatly improved upon in this area?

Another thing to possibly discuss is, do you think the technology in LA Noire is going to become more commonly used in the future? That's kind of the pinnacle in terms of facial animation/lip sync right?

But yeah, I know I can't be the only one who's excited to see how this is going to look.

 

[Yellowcardus]

Just look at Geralt's expression when entering the burning village in the VGX trailer. This kind of subtlety never happened in TW2, not even in cutscenes. Having said that, i never had much problem with the facial animations in the previous games. And an improvement in this regard, is just cream on top for me.

The tech in LA Noir only works if you hire actors for every charachter. Wich could be a problem in an RPG where you have so many of them. Also, talking monsters would have to be done using old techniques, which might be jarring. The price of actors and the required time, make it a bad ivestment for anythig other than a detective story.

 

[Vigilance.492]

Based on the Trailers we've seen, there's definitely a lot more subtle details in Geralt's face. If you go re-watch the Debut Gameplay Trailer & specifically watch Geralt's facial animation it's just leagues better than anything in TW2.

Debut Gameplay Trailer was honestly enough to make me realize it's going to be heaps better, but it will be interesting to eventually see perhaps a conversation or two play out & watch the faces in their full glory. Still, I would be happy to just wait till release for it since I'm confident it'll be fine.

 

[Mohasz]

I don't expect anything revolutionary, it will be better for sure but I still expect a fair amount of stiff faces.

As for LA Noire, I agree with Yellowcardus, hiring actors for each character could be a problem.
Plus, I somehow find it more amazing when facial animations are done right in the old fashioned way. In LA Noire it looked too real, maybe even exaggerated. On the top of that, in LA Noire the technology wasn't entirily refined either, I mean, most of the faces looked like 'moving stickers' on the characters' heads.

 

[Sam44]

I think they are using it the same way as in TW2 but with more complex and detailed ones, more face points etc.

 

[tw3fanapp]

They have implemented more bones to simulate which gives a more detailed look to express feelings and give accuracy to spoken words.
Plus the developer tools got optimized and automated to take some of the work off the developers.

To my knowledge CDPR only has motion capturing, so the face gets recorded only rudimentary. To film every cutscene and talk would really just blasting the budget and would be more time consuming in the end.

I don't have expectations that TW3 should be as well animated like LA Noire or Beyond Two Souls. TW3 has other strengths and I believe that emotions can also be as strong with lesser pixels and more ambience or the formulations and the environment and what else.

 

[HeelPower]

I want to see Geralt's lips perfectly moving...mmmmmmmm

xD Seriously though its very exciting to see how things changed from TW2.

Plus, I somehow find it more amazing when facial animations are done right in the old fashioned way.

yup I agree.I don't care much for perfect "acting" in a game.I actually love to see what the animators do on their own.The results are always far more interesting and unique than perfect mo-cap.I actually like "gamey" animations.

 

[EmperorZorn]

I'm very, very excited about this too.
Wooden faces or animations tend to break immersion for me.

I'm especially curious about the voice actors CDPR chose.
Hopefully they all match the respective characters.

 

[frynse]

That is only assuming that another "gameplay" trailer is not all we get to see.
Also, this hardly warrants its own thread.

 

[Villentretanmerth]

I have a question: is this the best facial animations in a game ever (not including performance capture)? I think they look impressive, and if you compare it, it looks leagues above other games at E3.

Not to slam Dragon Age Inquisition, but it's the closest game to TW3, and if you compare it, TW3 facial animations look leagues better. Like not even a little bit better. It looks waay better.

 

[mico11]

Way better . Not only facial animation, but Jonhy could communicate with you using only body language, and it was so well done.
Not sure about lipsync, it didn't seen to be that great but it was good

 

[shinobi2u]

Advanced rigs with more facial joints, higher poly models allowing better deformation, more memory to allow more stored animations, other technical advancements, bigger budget since TW2 sold over 6 million copies....it's pretty safe to say the quality is going to be higher. I was far more impressed with the animations during the conversations we've seen from the E3 stuff than past iterations or other similar titles from Bioware. They didn't feel as flat and lifeless, not as generic and reused.

 

[Jupiter_on_Mars]

(...) So do you think that we can expect, since it's no longer pre-alpha, that the footage we see in a few days will be greatly improved upon in this area?

(...).

I seem to have missed something.
In a few days? What footage?
Are we getting new footage in a couple of days?
Where's the announcement?
Thanks.

 

[Kassandrian]

^look at the post date
pre E3

concerning the animations: I think it'S important for a dialogue/story based game as the witcher to be able to convey emotions and subtleties with facial and body language,. as it adds a very, very important layer of emotional involvement.
So far the animations seem to have made a huge step from TW2, only thing I am afraid of is that it might be too compelling to "overact" our characters, drowning subtleties and nuances - and that it might seem a bit jumpy, when in one scene he is all grim, and talkin to somebody else Geralt is suddendly flirting and charming.

We'll see

 

[Xtreme-Void]

I remember hearing in interviews from the long long ago, that this area is going to be greatly improved upon. That was actually 1 of the few things that I thought The Witcher 2 was below average in, given the year that it came out in, which I remember thinking was a bit odd given the amount of importance that CDPR place on dialogue.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the leaked footage from a few months ago seemed to be using the exact same lip sync/facial animation system from TW2. I mean, it didn't look any different to me. But I assumed that was due to the game being pre-alpha at the time. So do you think that we can expect, since it's no longer pre-alpha, that the footage we see in a few days will be greatly improved upon in this area?

Another thing to possibly discuss is, do you think the technology in LA Noire is going to become more commonly used in the future? That's kind of the pinnacle in terms of facial animation/lip sync right?

But yeah, I know I can't be the only one who's excited to see how this is going to look.

In the gameplay footage, I already like the lip sync as shown when the peasant woman speak.

 

[moonknightgog]

I have a question: is this the best facial animations in a game ever (not including performance capture)? I think they look impressive, and if you compare it, it looks leagues above other games at E3.

Not to slam Dragon Age Inquisition, but it's the closest game to TW3, and if you compare it, TW3 facial animations look leagues better. Like not even a little bit better. It looks waay better.

The Last of Us is better.

 

[Mothra]

Last of Us is an RPG featuring dozens upon dozens of NPCs ?
They have 2 main characters they put all their money on, oc it is gonna look good.

 

[archaven]

Last of Us is an RPG featuring dozens upon dozens of NPCs ?
They have 2 main characters they put all their money on, oc it is gonna look good.

Only downside it's not on PC.

 

[Villentretanmerth]

The Last of Us is better.

I think the last of us uses performance capture though

 

[archaven]

I think the last of us uses performance capture though

Witcher game using mocap as well